Traveling and Arriving

Today's flight from DC to Addis was loooong, despite being 12.5 hours, instead of the expected 13.5. Luckily, I had the window seat (see left)! We flew on Ethiopian Airlines, which was a very nice airline. Our personal TV screens were touchscreen, and they had not only American movies, but also Nigerian (one fellow traveler called it "Nollywood"), as well as Ethiopian music for us to explore. 

We arrived under the cover of a thick haze (see above), and we groggily staggered our way through the customs line, the baggage claim, and out to the main entryway. It actually does take significantly longer to get 70 people from one stage of the process to another, so we PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) got a chance to practice our patience skills.


I think airports are a perfect place to illustrate the different ways scholars conceptualize globalization (gz). Some say that gz is causing the world to become more homogeneous (see photo of Addis airport below), but others argue that gz is causing what appears to be homogeneity on the surface, but in reality new hybrids of culture and society are being formed as the local has its influence on the global. 

For instance, inside the Addis airport, the first thing I noticed was the smell; it smelled like the spices used to flavor the food, and it reminded me strongly of India. As another example, on the plane before our breakfast, we were brought hot towelettes to wash our hands before we ate. It's quite wonderful to know that even when Western culture and ways of doing things are adopted, they are always tweaked to fit the local culture. 


My first impression of Addis is like my first impression of Delhi - it's huge and overwhelming. There's some really cool architecture though, and everyone we've met so far has been incredibly gracious and friendly. 


This afternoon we had our first training session, once we'd arrived at the hotel and settled in. The PC staff knew we were fighting a mighty battle against jet lag, so they kept it to the basic necessities (meeting the staff, a sim card and money for a cell phone, paperwork for another form of ID, and binders of training info) and a name game to help us work on getting to know everyone. It turns out that our group, G7, is the largest Ethiopia has ever had. The last one was closer to 20 or 30 new volunteers, so the name game was a bit more complicated this time. 


I can't wait for sleep-time!